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Your Options for Running a Mac-Based Law Firm: Managed Services

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Mac vs. PC, Office Management, Security, Software, Technology Leave a comment

The following Guest Post is from technology guru, Tom Lambotte from GlobalMac IT:

Managed Services is the opposite of the reactive, hourly model. The biggest benefit is being able to budget IT costs and shifting the support approach from reactive to proactive. The majority of Managed Service offerings are offered in a tiered model, such as Bronze, Silver or Gold. Bronze, for example, provides only phone support, with Silver providing slightly more, etc.

My company ceased providing hourly support when I realized the business model I built the company on (hourly support) was a break/fix model with many flaws. I would set up my clients or resolve their issues and then say, “call me when you need me.” I prided myself on my ability to resolve issues promptly and enjoyed working with my clients. However, there was always a subconscious voice in my head telling me I could prevent many of the reactive issues coming I dealt with. There had to be a better way. When I discovered the Managed Services model, I embraced it fully and we haven’t looked back.

Law firms using Managed Services benefit from fewer problems, less downtime and far less unexpected issues. This pro-active approach takes the role of managing IT out of the firm and puts it into the hands of experts. At least that is the promise of Managed Service providers. Like any business, whether they deliver is another story. You must do your due diligence in choosing an IT company. (Access our whitepaper “What Every Attorney Must Know About Hiring An Honest, Competent, Responsive And Fairly Priced Apple Consultant” at www.globalmacit.com/legalreport)

Managed Services provide a dramatic improvement over the options of DIY and hourly support. However, as our experience grew working with Managed Services, we saw some shortcomings with the tiered model of Managed Services. These insights led to the evolution of our current services. The tiered model means some things are included and others are not. Items such as Project work, training, after hours or emergency support, setting up new staff members, office moves, on-site support, for example, are rarely included, and therefore billed hourly. I found this tiered model often made clients feel they were being nickel and dimed. The overall impact of this model ends up hurting your firm in several ways.

First, one of the big benefits of Managed Services is being able to budget your IT costs. But if project work is not included, how can you budget accurately? The biggest problem this leads to is the delay of important projects that would be beneficial to the firm. Because the cost is not in the budget, projects that are important but not urgent are often pushed off and delayed. This impacts the firm’s profits, assuming the new solution would have addressed a bottleneck in the firm or boosted productivity in some way. For example, we have seen many firms fail when trying to roll out technical solutions on their own. The data is often neither migrated not configured properly, and they don’t provide proper training. Ultimately, the staff does not buy into the solution and it fails after the firm spent a LOT of money trying to get it off the ground.

Not knowing the level of support will cover an issue may deter your staff from calling the IT company, because they don’t want to rack up additional bills for the firm. This leads to small issues developing into bigger issues.

A word of caution: Windows-based Managed Services Companies.

Managed Services in the Apple world is a fairly new model, with less than 100 all-Mac Managed Service Providers in the nation. This means many Mac-based law firms looking for a proactive support option often only come across Windows-based Managed Service Providers who claim they can support Macs.

The number ONE issue with most Windows-centric Managed Service Providers supporting Macs is that it is financially impossible for a Windows-shop to provide the same level of support to Macs as they do to PCs. They cannot justify spending the same amount of resources on training, tools and support for the 5-10% of their computers that are Macs. Because of this you will not receive the same caliber of support provided to their PC users. In the majority of cases, when they say they can support Macs, they have one person who’s the “Mac expert.” When that person is out of the office, Mac-using clients are out of luck.

Simply becoming Apple Certified does NOT make one an expert. It is a step in the right direction, however, there is still a long way to becoming proficient at supporting Macs. I have heard many stories where the client ended up knowing more about Macs than the support person they are speaking with! Talk about a horrible experience. If you are an all-Mac law firm, you need to do extra diligence if you are considering hiring on a Windows-centric IT company to support your firm. Not everyone out there is negligent in this area, but sadly I can say from experience that the majority are not able to fully support Macs.

A Managed Services has some flaws, it is a huge step forward in becoming proactive in managing your technology. Next month’s article will discuss the 4^th and final option, the unique offering version of Managed Services of my company, GlobalMac IT and how it is specialized for Mac-Based Law Firms.

Provided as an educational service by Tom Lambotte, President of GlobalMac IT

GlobalMac IT was founded by Tom Lambotte – renowned nationwide as an author, speaker, trusted IT advisor, and cutting edge, successful provider of the #1 complete end-to-end IT solution for Mac-Based Law Firms in the world. Private firms from throughout North America – and as far reaching as American Samoa – running with a staff of 5-50 – have relied on his expertise to help them put their IT headaches behind once and for all.

Using his real world experience, where results rule and dollars can’t be wasted on negligent computer consultants, he wanted to help managing partners and office managers of Mac-based law firms to put an end to wasting their time and money on IT support that does not work and rescue them from the frustration.

Our unique “TotalCare” approach integrates classic IT support with proven proactive support that truly converts IT from something to be dealt with, into a tool that truly increases law firm profits, increases staff productivity, and provides piece of mind that firm and client data is secure and that their security is never at risk. You can reach GlobalMac IT at (440) 941-1622 to request more information.

Running a Mac-Based Law Firm: The Hourly Consultant Option

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Mac vs. PC, Office Management, Technology Leave a comment

In this Guest Post, my friend and technology guru Tom Lambotte from GlobalMac IT discusses the second most common option for IT support when Running a Mac-Based Law Firm: an hourly consultant.

The smaller the firm, the more likely they are to use the DIY approach which we discussed in the first part of this series in last month’s newsletter. But, inevitably the DIYers run into something that’s beyond their scope, which is where the hourly IT consultant comes in. Based on my experience having worked as an hourly consultant for five years, approximately two-thirds of my clients operated with the DIY approach and only called when things were dire.

I’ll discuss the most common pitfalls and give strategies on how to get the most value when working with an hourly consultant.

Common pitfalls of using an hourly IT consultant:

The consultant has no incentive to fix other issues they discover. They often give an estimated time to address the problem they are called in to fix, so they do their best to stay within that estimate. Discovering issues while working on addressing the issue at hand can put the consultant in a difficult position. Do they address the issues as they come across them and go over their estimated time or just focus on completing the task at hand?
They bill hourly, so to maximize their income, they need to line up their day with appointments. Their primary focus is resolving the problem in the time they have allotted, whether that is the right amount of time or not. This time pressure can often lead to duct-tape fixes, leading to issues needing to be addressed more than once.
The overwhelming majority of Apple Consultants are one-person shops, meaning they are not always available when you need them. I remember the challenge this posed. If I was with a client and had an emergency with another client, I’d be in a pickle. If you’re the one in a pickle and your consultant is busy, you won’t know when they will be able to respond.
Very few consultants have chosen an area of expertise to develop. The overwhelming majority of Apple Consultants work with anyone with a Mac. This makes it unlikely that they will be familiar with the specific tools, techniques, structures, systems or new ways of thinking and problem solving specific to the legal industry. Their clientele has as much variety as a magazine rack at Target.
Their purpose is to fix the issue you asked them to fix. Not to find ways to boost productivity for your staff, streamline your processes, look for security risks in your setup, or implement solutions that will benefit the firm.

There’s a strong belief out there that: “I switched to Macs so I didn’t need IT support.” However, your system is more often than not riddled with bottlenecks and security holes and plagued by issues and productivity losses. Without fail, I would quickly create a list of issues that my clients had never been aware of. There is far more that falls under the IT umbrella than just installing updates. It is all the things You Don’t Know You Don’t Know that a specialist can help you address.

Best practices when using an hourly consultant

Make sure they are Certified. The IT industry is NOT regulated and hiring someone who is learning on your dime can be costly. Don’t hire someone from Craigslist or your friend’s son who really likes Macs. Search for a Certified Apple Consultant in your area. Then, just like you do on Amazon, read the reviews and do some research before picking one. You can also call your local Apple Store’s Business Team and ask for recommendations.
Test them out. It’s better to have a consultant and not need one than to need one and not have one. Don’t wait for an emergency to find a consultant to work with. Make a small list of things you’d like addressed or configured and use them for a couple hours. Make sure you work well together, that they are competent and that you’d feel comfortable hiring them again in the future. Trust your gut, if there’s doubt, try another.
Don’t wait for dire emergencies. Neil Tyra, attorney and producer of The Law Entrepreneur podcast asks solos if they would pay an IT person $250 an hour. If not, why would they take an hour of your time, as an attorney trying to troubleshoot an issue? Get in the habit of using your hourly consultant on a proactive basis and reduce the amount of time you spent dealing with IT. Start by making a list of your concerns, the things that keep you up at night. Then hire a consultant to implement solutions to address these concerns.
Plan regular visits and add to your budget. This will vary based on your size, but have them perform regular maintenance, monthly for most people, more often if you are larger and at a minimum, a quarterly visit. Build the cost into your budget.

To wrap up, I urge you to stop playing the IT person in your firm and focus on serving your clients and building your practice. If you are currently using an hourly consultant, move out of the two-thirds who only call in emergencies and move into the third that are proactive. And if you are going to work with an hourly consultant, here is your homework: Pick the top three strategies that struck a chord with you from the “what NOT to do” or from the Best Practices section. Then outline three actions you will take to shift the approach towards IT from reactive to proactive.

In next month’s article, we’ll discuss Managed Services, which takes being proactive to a whole other level.

Provided as an educational service by Tom Lambotte, President of GlobalMac IT

Rocket Matter Launches Numerous New Features

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Office Management, Online Resources, Product Reviews, Software Leave a comment

As my readers know, my firm has used Rocket Matter since its launch in early 2008, and we absolutely love it. 2016 has already been a busy year for them, as they introduced QuickBooks Online integration and Rocket Matter Payments in February, followed in March byMatter Templates and Rocket Matter Atlas, a complete, modern redesign of the its user interface.

Never ones to rest on their laurels, Rocket Matter released their Atlas 1.1 update a few days ago, which includes numerous new additions to help make law firms be even more productive and increase their revenue. These new features include new tax functionality, multiple timers, an improved onboarding experience with gamification, and customizable dashboards.

Larry Port, Rocket Matter’s CEO and founder says:

“Let’s be honest: Taxes are not enjoyable to talk about in any way, and they’re even less fun to tally up on an invoice. Rocket Matter now takes care of this task for you. We rolled out some exciting stuff, too – a compelling gaming system for our new customers that makes learning Rocket Matter entertaining, along with some cool new features our customers have been asking us to add.”

Because my firm is on a pre-release program, we have been using many of these features for several weeks, and I can easily say that my favorite is the customizable dashboards and calendars, which now allow users to customize their personal Dashboards to be either “task-centric” or “calendar centric.” Everyone works in different ways, so this additional flexibility allows users to choose the one most helpful to them. In our office, the attorneys lean toward the “calendar centric” view, while our support staff prefer the “task-centric” view.

One of the other great new features is the ability to view the firm-wide calendar in either of two view settings. Users who prefer to view their calendar in one clear, elegant-looking size, “fit events to view” provides a “more” link if the number of events on any given day exceeds the available space. On the other hand, “show all events” will stretch the size of the page to show all events on each day without having to click on the “more” link. I prefer the latter, but I can see why some would rather have the option for the same size “box” for each day.

People who tend to work on multiple tasks at once will love the new multiple timers feature (shown at right). This allows Rocket Matter users to run a timer, pause it when they get interrupted, start another one for a different matter, and then come back to the original timer later. Billable time gets tracked on each timer and, in turn, seamlessly appears on an invoice. For those with many things going on at one time, this can be a life saver (and help capture time that might otherwise be lost and thus unbillable.

If you haven’t already checked out Rocket Matter Atlas, you can view this informative overview video. We are extremely choosy with regard to which program we entrust our calendaring, task management, contacts, and time and billing (among other important function), and the fact that we have been with Rocket Matter for almost 8.5 years is a testament to the strength of their product. In the decade before we started using it, we easily went through 7 or 8 other products trying to find the “right” solution. For us, that’s Rocket Matter, and we applaud their never-ending desire to constantly improve their product in an effort to make the work lives of their users more efficient and more profitable.

The Mac Lawyer Interviewed on The Law Entrepreneur

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Did You Know?, Office Management, This Blog Leave a comment

My readers probably know a good bit about the “tech side” of my life, but they might not know much about my “real job”. I am the Senior Partner in a boutique law firm in Spartanburg, SC that exclusively handles family law cases. My practice areas include high asset divorces, contested child custody cases, and other complex family law issues. As I like to describe it, I solve puzzles for a living.

If you’re curious how I ended up doing this and what led me to this point in my career, you may want to listen to Neil Tyra’s interview with me. As you may recall, I blogged a few weeks ago about Neil’s podcast, The Law Entrepreneur with Neil Tyra, and he was kind enough to have me as the featured guest on this week’s episode, Ben Stevens – The Evolution Of A Southern Family Law Attorney (Episode # 13).

I enjoyed being a guest on his podcast, and Neil does a great job interviewing his guests while making them feel comfortable during the process. This podcast has become one of my favorites, and I hope that you’ll consider checking it out and subscribing to it. Many thanks to Neil for having me on, and I look forward to talking with him more in the future. To find out more about The Law Entrepreneur click here, or to subscribe via iTunes click here.

Podcast Recommendation: The Law Entrepreneur with Neil Tyra

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Office Management, Online Resources, Podcasts Leave a comment

Time is the one thing that I (like most busy attorneys) simply don’t have enough of. I enjoy learning, and podcasts are a great way to do so. Even though I enjoy them, but I am very discerning in selecting the ones that make the cut and find their way onto my playlist (in Overcast, which, by the way, is awesome).

I wanted to write this post to highlight a new addition to the few selected podcasts I follow – The Law Entrepreneur with Neil Tyra. Neil is an attorney who owns his own firm and has been practicing in Maryland (just outside of DC) since 2004. The stated goal of his podcast is to address “what they didn’t teach us about running a business in law school” – because that’s one of the areas that most law schools fall woefully short.

Neil’s podcast covers topics that help his listeners understand the many complexities of owning your own law firm, especially solos and those in small firms. Let’s face it, being an entrepreneur is not easy; being a successful attorney is not easy; and combing the two is not for the faint of heart. One thing Neil does that I love is he offers transparency by discussing some of the mistakes he made in his own firm along the way – which I think is wonderful and wish more people were willing to do.

Even though I graduated with honors with an undergraduate degree in financial management with a minor in accounting, I freely acknowledge that there were so many things that I didn’t know about running a firm when I left my old firm to open my own one in 1996. As with most things in life, I learned many things “the hard way”, but those missteps were very educational to me. In fact, that is one of the reasons that I teach so many CLE classes, because I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with others.

The Law Entrepreneur podcast features interviews with successful attorneys (both solos and those from small firms), along with other bright and successful entrepreneurs who aren’t necessarily in the practice of law, to educate his listeners about creating, running, and managing a successful business in the internet era. Each episode is around 30 minutes, which is ideal for most people because they can listen to it while commuting to/from work (which I do during my 10-15 minute drive).

One of Neil’s best episodes to date is the one with my buddy, Victor Medina from New Jersey, who discusses how he successfully transitioned his law practice from educational law into estate planning & elder law, while managing to grow his practice and branch out into financial services along the way. Big changes executed masterfully over a short period of time with great results – what more could you want?

Neil and Victor’s discussion was fascinating, and you can access it here if you want a preview (which you can access ). To find out more about The Law Entrepreneur click here, or to subscribe via iTunes click here. I am confident that you will be glad you did – and Neil, keep up the great work!

Rocket Matter Introduces QuickBooks Online Integration and Slick New Payments

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Office Management, Online Resources, Product Reviews, Technology 1 Comment

Today the fine folks at Rocket Matter rolled out an integration with QuickBooks Online, making the best online legal time and billing software even better (click here to watch a short video). In addition, they announced Rocket Matter Payments, which the painful task of invoicing and collecting easier than ever.

Rocket Matter QuickBooks Online Integration:

QuickBooks desktop is one of those things that forces a Mac law firm to keep a copy of Windows running. The Mac version of QuickBooks just isn’t that great, so most of our tribe is stuck running Parallels or VMWare or *gasp* has a server running Windows on it somewhere (which is probably the only machine in the firm that gets viruses).

The online version of QuickBooks seems to be where Intuit is placing more and more of its emphasis. They are starting to drop developer support for some of their desktop API access and are encouraging more adoption of the cloud-based product. It’s enough to make one wonder if Intuit will one day sunset the desktop product completely.

Rocket Matter’s QuickBooks Online integration, according to their announcement, “continues in the company’s tradition of easy-to-use, visually appealing software. Rocket Matter users will be able to tie together detailed information between the two systems, including invoices, expenses, trust account credits and debits, as well as sync all current clients with Rocket Matter.”

The other Rocket Matter announcement that will affect small law firm business is the introduction of Rocket Matter Payments. Basically, this feature allows you to email your client invoices with a secure payment link. You’re then able to tell if your clients opened the email or not. When a client pays, your Rocket Matter ledgers are updated automatically, which then can be seamlessly integrated with – you guess it – QuickBooks Online.

Watch an overview of Rocket Matter Payments:

Big Brother or Just Good Business?

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Office Management, Security, Technology Leave a comment

The following Guest Post is from Tom Lambotte from GlobalMac IT:

Imagine you decide to check one of your employees’ history on their browsers one day. The most recent 30 stops were at Facebook, Pinterest, Match.com and Amazon. Let’s assume there had been previous incidents of on-the-job theft, how would respond? Theft you say!? Yes, it’s theft and it’s rampant and epic. It’s time theft, which you need to look at exactly the same way as any other kind of stealing in your firm.

“But we are a small law firm and I trust everyone, this surely isn’t happening in my firm?” Everyone wants to think that, but the hard truth is that this goes on, way more than you would ever think. And I you don’t have a system in place to monitor it, you are an ostrich with it’s head stuck in the sand.

When you pay an employee a set wage in exchange for a set amount of work, lets say a 40 hour work week, did you ever agree that they only have to actually work 30 or 35 hours and can goof off the rest o the time? Should you be paying them for checking their Yahoo and Gmail email accounts, Facebook or browsing on Amazon while at work?

A very common thing I have seen, in small firms and mid-sized firms alike (and a mid-size firm in our books is a firm with 25 -50 users) is they ‘trust’ everyone on their staff. I don’t question trust, but I do question focus and output. As I’ve repeated time and time again, on average, 45.03% of your revenues go towards payroll. Legal services has the the 4th highest percentage of revenues going to payroll in the nation. You need to do everything you can to ensure that your staff is as productive as possible.

Browsing that is NOT related to work is theft. I know how extreme that sounds and I used to be on your side as well. I’m a laid-back, highly trusting, organic-eating eating, hippie from the 90s (funny I know). I trust and love people. But I have seen an overwhelming amount of data that shows, consistently, that this is going, unchecked on in every firm. The truth is, online communities like Facebook and commerce giants from Amazon to eBay would lose a tremendous amount of business if it were not for all the daytime use by employees at work, effectively stealing from their employers while playing on the internet. If their attention is going towards non work-related things, they are NOT working. Make no mistake: While the cat’s not watching, the mice are at play at these websites, playing computer games, doing their personal banking online, sending email greeting cards, text-messaging friends, watching movies, while your law practices phones go unanswered, your clients get treated as annoying interruptions and paperwork gets hidden and buried. I know how extreme this viewpoint is, but please hang with me.

On average, research shows that it takes 23 minutes to get back to the previous task at hand every time you are interrupted. Have you even peeked at Facebook for only a minute because there was a notification and before you know it, 11 minutes later you break the death-grip of Facebook, pop back out into the world, left to wonder what the heck just happened? If you know what I’m talking about here, imagine your staff doing this every day on your dime.

We recently added Content Monitoring and Filtering, Umbrella by OpenDNS, as a new service included in our offering and have been setting up all our existing clients on this. After monitoring only for a month, the data is far worse than I expected. Internally, I can confidently say that every one of our employees does the work of 3 regular employees. They are true A players, I trust them 100%. Even then, I saw a good chunk of Facebook usage, Amazon, Zulily, Etsy, Tumbler blog sites and yes, even a little bit of ‘inappropriate content.’

The results have been extremely similar at every law firm we have deployed this at so far. So back to the example of my staff, after monitoring traffic for a month, we implemented content filtering, blocking certain categories and types of content from being visited while at work. I setup a bypass code for WORK and for BREAKS, so that if a site is blocked but should not be, they can easily bypass it. If they are on a break they can go to Facebook, or Zulily or Amazon. All these exceptions are tracked, by user, so I can easily go back and review the exceptions if needed.

I suggest you work on creating a “productivity-only” workplace,” with distractions removed. The less distractions your team has, the more productive they will be. In terms of the Big Brother mindset and fear, the truth is, in the workplace, people need to grasp that they are there to work; they have no right to expect privacy. Whatever they’re doing is your business as long as they are doing it at your business on your business’s clock.

Idle browsing is like a dripping faucet that’s always on, however, labor is quite a bit more expensive than water. That water drip, according to a report by Salary.com, adds up to over $750 billion (that’s billion with a b) that American companies spend paying people for work they’re not doing. In the workplace, Big Brother has to watch. The cat must never be away.

Our service for Mac-based law firms includes content monitoring and filtering. We implement Acceptable Use Policies for our clients and their staff and then install, configure and maintain their content filtering to reduce the amount of time spent at work NOT working.

I highly recommend that if you don’t currently have this in place in your firm, you reach out to your IT guy and demand they implement this. If they can’t do it, find a competent IT firm that can. And if you’re a Mac-based law firm, call us, you won’t find anyone better at supporting Mac-based law firms, since that’s the ONLY thing we do! Happy browsing.

Provided as an educational service by Tom Lambotte, President of GlobalMac IT

4 Creative Ways to Market Your Law Practice on a Budget

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Ben Stevens Posted in Office Management, Offline Resources 1 Comment

The following guest post is from one of my readers, Texas attorney Billy Skinner:

With the overwhelming number of law school graduates flooding the market each year, getting your law practice noticed above the crowd can seem like a daunting task. Attorneys often think the only way to promote their practice is through expensive TV advertisement or roadside billboards.

However, small law firms and solo law practices can produce successful marketing campaigns by creatively using alternative marketing methods. There are several inexpensive ways you can promote your practice and build your client base. Here are some suggestions:

Using Facebook Ads

Most of your potential clients probably use Facebook on a daily basis. Advertising through the social media network can help you target those potential clients while not breaking your advertising budget. Facebook advertisements can be priced either on a per view or per action basis, so your budget can range from a few dollars to tens of thousands of dollars a month depending on your audience targets.

Facebook ads can be created through your company’s business Facebook page in a few simple steps. During this process, you can choose the audiences who will see it based on location, age, interests and more. This demographic targeting is the key to making Facebook ads cost effective. By knowing the interests, demographics, or geo-locations of your future clients, you can exclusively target these individuals, meaning you aren’t paying for people who aren’t likely to become customers to view your ads.

Once the ads are running, they appear in a person’s timeline seamlessly with their friends’ updates, on both mobile and desktop devices. This can help to catch their attention without feeling intrusive, like popup ads do. The ads can provide information about the business and have multiple actionable buttons, like a link to the website or a phone number.

The cost of the advertisements are significantly lower than other online options, like Google AdWords. Facebook ads can run for as little as $5 per month, and the budget can be changed at any time. You are always in control of the amount of money you spend, and the company will not charge more than the amount you designate.

Through a Monthly Email List to Market to Referring Attorneys

Attorneys actively involved in the legal community can be the biggest asset to small firms. According to research by LexisNexis, about 26 percent of an American law firm’s income typically comes from referred work. One way to increase lawyer-to-lawyer referrals is through a monthly email communication.

Creating a list of possible referring attorneys is a free way to promote your business. Once on your email list, you can foster your relationship with that referring attorney through a monthly email, which can include updates about your practice area, information they can use to assist their clients, and details about the types of cases your seek.

When compiling the list, you should search for firms that are not competition and other attorneys who practice in different areas of the law but who deal generally with the same type of client. For example, if you are a criminal defense attorney, you might seek out family law attorneys as they both deal with individuals. By contrast, an M&A attorney might look to build an email list of business attorneys.

Reminding these attorneys monthly of your availability and skills is a free and effective marketing tool. Referral relationships cannot simply be sustained through an annual mixer at a local bar event, rather they take time and effort, and frequent communication is critical to making that happen. So, by sending regular email newsletters you subtly remind them of who you are, and what you do. And in so doing, you stay top of mind for when the moment comes that they need to make a referral.

Writing and Updating a Blog

Having a legal blog could be a simple and inexpensive way to promote your law practice. This type of marketing, however, is different from advertisements that could produce a quicker return on investment. Creating an online journal is a long-term venture that could help differentiate your business from competitors with a mild amount of effort.

Creating the blog itself is a simple task, and it likely is something you could do on your own. Although a hired designer could create a more unique and intricate design, a simple WordPress format could be enough when starting the online journal. Once the blog is personalized to suit your firm, think of the image you would like to portray and who your audience likely will be. There are two main techniques, the first is to appeal to potential referral sources, and the second is to appeal to clients directly.

Whichever audience you decide to target, posting creative and unique content is the most important aspect of a blog. Blogs need to be updated with timely information and material relevant to your legal field. The content could include authentic text, videos, infographics and even images. Having varied material will make the blog more appealing to readers.

For example, if you are a criminal defense attorney who handles drunk driving cases, you could write about a specific aspect of the law, such as how to challenge the results of a field sobriety test. You also could create a video in which you or your staff demonstrate how common field sobriety tests are administered. These two alternative formats of essentially the same content allow you to reach a broader audience as some visitors will want to view the video and others read an article.

Moreover, when a new post is made, share it on your company’s social media. This helps to keep your social media active with current information, while helping your work to reach an even larger audience. If the information is unique and creative, it likely will be shared on different social media accounts, helping to get your company name out to potential clients.

Frequent blog posts also could assist your website in searches. Google uses the recency of content updates, paired with the magnitude of updates, as part of its algorithm to determine search rankings. Search engine rankings are important because 96 percent of people seeking legal advice use a search engine, according to Google.

Volunteer with Legal Groups

Spending some of your extra moments volunteering with local legal groups and associations is another inexpensive way to indirectly market your law practice. Like with any type of volunteering, this would allow you to meet an ample amount of people and provide you with an avenue to discuss what you do.

Volunteering helps connect you to those who may need your services in the future, whether they are future clients or experienced lawyers who may be able to refer clients to your practice. In addition to doing good, it provides you the exposure you need to meet as many people as possible in a short amount of time.

To the extent that your volunteering is done, at least in part, for marketing, it’s important to select activities that will put you into contact with potential clients or referring attorneys. So, for example, if you’re a tax attorney, volunteering at the local soup kitchen, while admirable, will likely be less professionally helpful than volunteering to be on your local communities business owner’s association.

Conclusion

Effective marketing and client development does not have require a substantial budget. In fact, many of the most effective forms of attorney advertising take little to no money. What they do require, however, is thinking ahead of time about what your clients are like, what their interests are, and what their needs are. Once identified, practices should then consider alternative ways to connect with them, whether it is through social media, a practice’s blog, meeting in person through volunteering or through referrals.

About the Author: Attorney Billy Skinner is an experienced criminal defense attorney who represents individuals accused of sex crimes in Texas. Visit his website or follow him on Google+.

2015 Apple at Law User Survey

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac vs. PC, Office Management, Online Resources, Software, Switching to Macs, Technology Leave a comment

The following Guest Post was written by Tom Lambotte of GlobalMac IT and is reprinted here with his permission:

Attorney at Work recently collaborated with MILOfest to conduct the “2015 Apple at Law Users Survey,” aimed at getting a snapshot of how law firms are using Apple products. Tom Lambotte, CEO of GlobalMac IT and one of the MILOfest conference and survey organizers, reviews the results and points out the highlights. Be sure to download the full highlights report PDF, too.

This year’s Apple at Law User Survey revives the annual tradition begun with Clio’s “Apple in Law Offices” survey, conducted from 2010 to 2013. The 2015 Attorney at Work survey drew 339 respondents from firms of all sizes, and the results show some interesting statistics.

Apple Ascending

It’s no surprise that use of Apple products in the legal market continues, but it is amazing to see the continual growth.

Of the individuals responding to the survey, 27 percent were solos, 44 percent had between 2 to 10 employees on staff, 18 percent had between 11 to 50 employees, 6 percent employed 51 to 200, and another 5 percent were in large firms of more than 200. The spread among these numbers confirms that Apple products are being used in larger firms — not just in solo and small law offices.

All Mac or a Mix?

Almost one-third (29 percent) of the respondents were 100 percent on Macs in their law firms, which is not shocking considering the dramatic advancements made possible by cloud-based platforms and software-as-a-service (SaaS). This is a major shift from five years ago when the Apple platform had very limited options in areas such as case management, document assembly, and time and billing software.

Now, with more and more software becoming platform agnostic (meaning it will run on any operating system), I predict we will continue to see the number of all-Mac offices continually increase, year after year.

A full 22 percent of respondents reported using a mix of PCs and Macs, further confirming my point. One of the biggest benefits of SaaS is that firms can give their employees a choice of which platform they would like to use. It also makes it possible to test out a couple of Macs in the office before eventually making the full switch. Often, we encounter a managing partner wanting a MacBook Air, testing it out, falling in love, and then pushing the full migration to Macs in the office.

Another 27 people (8 percent) reported being the only Mac users in their firm. I foresee these trailblazers — along with the mixed PCs and Macs firms — playing a big role in the coming adoption of all-Mac law offices. In fact, we just signed a client with a 15-person firm, where it started with one attorney bringing in his Mac a couple of years ago. They gradually converted and are now on Apple 100 percent.

A Spike in New Users

It’s interesting to compare some of the results from the last Clio survey to the 2015 numbers. Clio’s 2013 Apple in Law Offices Survey reported that 44 percent of respondents had been using Macs for more than three years, while 2015 survey results came in at 50 percent. The biggest difference is new users: In 2013, only 9 percent of respondents had been using Macs for less than a year. That number almost tripled among respondents to the 2015 survey, at 26 percent, pointing to a big spike in increased Mac usage in law firms.

Tablets in Law Offices

Shifting to tablets, 84 percent of the respondents currently use iPads, compared with 75 percent in 2013 and 70 percent in 2012. In 2011, only 15 percent of those surveyed owned an iPad, up from only 10 percent in 2010. Remember that the iPad made its debut in 2010, so those 10 percent were early adopters. In just three years, the iPad had widely penetrated the legal market.

As for the specific iPad model in use, 45 percent say they use either an iPad Air or the iPad Air2. The brand new iPad Pro, just released on November 10, came in at 5 percent. Keep in mind, this survey closed on November 23, so a 5 percent adoption rate in the first two weeks is quite impressive! The older models are still heavily in use, with a third (34 percent) of respondents using an iPad2 or older. This speaks highly to the long, usable life span of the iPads.

Popular Desktop and Laptops

Moving into desktop computer use, the iMac was the most popular desktop model among respondents, with 62 percent of the Mac desktop share. It is hard to beat the all-in-one lines of the iMac. The other two options were the Mac minis at 23 percent and the Mac Pros at 14 percent.

I had expected the Mac mini’s use to be higher and to see less of the Mac Pros. These results may be swayed by the respondents since the survey asked what kind of Mac the respondent was using — not the overall number and types of Macs used firmwide. We frequently see attorneys using iMacs while support staff use Mac minis. The Mac minis are a great option for firms switching from PCs that already have newer monitors and keyboards and mice.

As for laptops, I expected to see a higher percentage of MacBook Airs. (I love my 11-inch Air). A third of the respondents reported using MacBook Airs (32 percent), with over half (58 percent) using MacBook Pros.

While I personally believe the MacBook Pros are overkill for most lawyers, no other laptops had retina screens up until the recent introduction of the new MacBook. I think that was a big reason for the high percentage of these. I forecast an increase in MacBooks and MacBook Airs over the next year.

Talking again about the early adopters, the new MacBook was released on April 10, 2015, and 9 percent reported using these devices — consistent with that 10 percent early adoption rate for other devices.

Apple’s new market item, the Apple Watch (not the iWatch), again hit that 10 percent early adopter mark, coming in at 11 percent. Looking back at the introduction of the iPods, iPhones and iPads, the first year’s sales tend to be a bit slow, with adoption rate striking up tremendously in years to follow. I’m excited to see where this number will be in next year’s survey!

Why Mac?

We also polled users about why they chose to use Macs. The top two reasons, both chosen by more than 70 percent of respondents, were usability and reliability. The third most popular reason was security, followed by aesthetics and familiarity.

Usability (73 percent)
Reliability (70 percent)
Security (44 percent)
Aesthetics/Design (37 percent)
Familiarity (Used at Home) (35 percent)

“Usability” typically refers to ease of use and the user interface (UI). For the most part, Apple and Windows operating systems have the same features. It’s the UI that makes all the difference in the world. If you don’t know how to access or use a feature, you won’t use it. If you are not comfortable and confident in doing a certain task, you won’t do it.

I think this is why the “halo effect” is so dominant with Apple products. The first time someone uses an iPhone or an iPad, they often have that “aha” moment, where they react with: “Wow, this is SO easy.” When someone experiences this they eventually wonder, “Can this happen on my computer, too?” So they buy more Apple products, and, in time, move towards switching their firms to Macs.

What Software and Apps Do Mac-based Lawyers Use?

The survey also asked lawyers whether they use software and apps in these categories: practice management, document management, time and billing, accounting, and project management, as well as what particular products they use.

Practice management. Among those who identified a practice management application, Clio was the most popular, with Rocket Matter and MyCase tying for second. After these, Amicus Attorney, CaseManager and Daylite all had around 5 percent of users. The “other” option turned up an interesting range of products in use, from custom systems to workarounds for PC-based systems to those using general business apps like Google and Evernote. Time Matters was among the most popular “write-ins.”

However, 36 percent — one out of three respondents — don’t use any type of practice management software at all. Based on my experience with Mac-based law firms, this sounds about right, and these results reinforce my belief that many firms are still not properly leveraging the tools available to maximize their practice.

Document management and file storage. A whopping 60 percent of respondents reported using Dropbox. After Dropbox, Google Drive was a distant second at 27 percent. Still, this was much higher than I anticipated. Based on my experience, not one of our Mac-based law firm clients use Google Drive. In third place was Box.

As a side note, if your law firm is classified as a “business associate” under HIPAA rules and you are using a Dropbox Pro or Business account, you are not HIPAA compliant. Until recently, Dropbox would not sign a BAA. On December 2, 2015, they introduced Dropbox Enterprise, an additional higher-level tier — and the only tier where they will sign a BAA. Google will sign a BAA, as will Box, but also only on the Box Enterprise plan, which has been out for two years.

Document drafting and production. Microsoft continues to lead the way with 91 percent of respondents using Microsoft Office apps. Of those, 22 percent are already using the 2016 version, which mirrors the recent uptick seen elsewhere in the adoption of Office 365. Apple’s Pages, in the iWork suite, was in use by 17 percent of respondents. For working with PDFs, Acrobat continues to lead with 55 percent of users; 12 percent use PDFpen, and 10 percent use Apple’s built-in Preview application. An unsuspected contender was WordPerfect coming in at 1.4 percent.

For those running Windows on their Macs, the most popular applications were Microsoft Office, HotDocs, Quickbooks and Adobe Acrobat.

(For a deeper look into the software results, download the full survey highlights report.)

Best Part of Running a Mac-Based Practice?

The survey asked the open-ended question, “What do you feel is the best part about running a Mac-based practice?” Here are a few of their answers:

“Reliability and usability. I feel my productivity is much greater on my Mac.”
“Legal apps/tools are starting to catch up on Mac platform.”
“Ease of use and integration with the Mac-iOS ecosystem.”
“Clarity of retina screens for significant hours of reading and writing online, plus track record of virus protection security.”
“Macs are simpler to use, more reliable by far, and my MacBook Air is so much faster than our Dell desktops that I use it whenever I can in place of ‘high-end’ Dells.”
“Reliability. When we ran PCs the computer repair person was a regular visitor.”
“Mac is such a fluid operating system. It makes the programs work seamlessly and improves interaction and communication. The Apple products increase the value of whatever programs or application we might use because they work better on Apple devices!”
“Never having to worry. A former partner had all PCs in her office. It felt like half of her time was spent acting as tech support.”

I find that people usually make decisions based on emotion, then justify those decisions with logic. Chances are, if you own an Apple product, you’ve already had good experiences with Macs. Perhaps you’ve been holding off switching your law firm over to Macs because you felt it couldn’t be done, or maybe you still think Macs are just for graphic designers and photographers. As you can see in this survey, plenty of law offices are using Apple computers.

High Marks for MILOfest

Many Mac-using attorneys don’t even know of its existence, but there is a legal technology conference specifically designed for Mac-users. MILOfest (Macs-In-Law-Offices) and has taken place at Walt Disney World in Orlando since 2010. Of the 2015 Apple at Law survey respondents who had previously attended MILOfest, 74 percent rated it an 8 or higher on a scale of 1 to 10. For more details on MILOfest 2016, go visit the MILOfest.com site.

More Apple at Law Survey Results

Attorney at Work’s report on the survey highlights is available for download here.

About the Author: Tom Lambotte is CEO of GlobalMacIT, a company specializing in providing IT support to Mac-based law firms. Tom is the author of “Hassle Free Mac IT Support for Law Firms” and “Legal Boost: Big Profits Through an IT Transformation.” He is a popular speaker at national events such as the ABA TECHSHOW and MILOfest, a Mac Lovin’ Lawyers Event. Follow Tom on Twitter @LegalMacIT.

Features Are Worthless – A Case for New Case Management Software

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Office Management Leave a comment

PCLaw. TABS3. PracticeMaster. Amicus Attorney. Needles. Time Matters. Timeslips.

Most attorneys will have heard of at least a few of these solutions as they have been the main contenders for decades. The problem is that they have turned into massive and immobile pieces of bloatware. What is bloatware? From wikipedia: “In long-lived software, perceived bloat can occur from the software servicing a large, diverse marketplace with many differing requirements. Most end users will feel they only need some limited subset of the available functions and will regard the others as unnecessary bloat, even if people with different requirements do use them.”

The problem with adding on every feature request for 5, 10, 15 years or more is that features, when you are not able to easily access them, become worthless. The software becomes so intimidating and non-inviting to the user that it simply goes unused. You see, if you and your staff are not both comfortable and confident with a solution, it is not going to be used.

I know many firms who had been using TABS3, PracticeMaster or PCLaw. However, they continued to track time on an excel sheet, which they would then send to their Office Manager once a week to manually enter. I have also heard from clients, who are making the switch from PC to Mac, that although they own one of these archaic pieces of bloatware, they rarely use them, if at all.

Another very common problem I see for these massive companies, especially those that have been around forever, is that they are very slow in moving to the cloud. If they do decide to move, they simply copy what they currently have, add a new pretty coat of paint and then offer it to their clientele. The problem here is that none of the weight is shed. This causes the migration to the cloud to be both slow and unexciting.

The Cloud

The new cloud-based management solutions have made gigantic strides in reinventing the software to what it should have been in the first place. They are lean, simple to use, easy to deploy and have great educational content to help the new users ease into it.

The older big name management solutions mentioned above often cost thousands of dollars to get up and running, thousands of dollars to maintain, and require expensive servers on-site, which in turn create expensive IT bills to properly manage and keep up to date. The new cloud-based solutions are turn-key, without massive initial fees to get up and running. They can easily scale and contract with the needs of your firm, making the process very easy to budget, since you will also know exactly what a new user will cost to add on. They also offer may ways to learn the software, so that when you bring on a new attorney, they can learn though self-paced methods such as pre-recorded videos on specific topics, live webinars, and easy to search and use online support portals. In comparison, most of the older software will have a 300 page PDF manual, which no one ever cracks into.

One of the biggest features is that ‘modern’, reinvented solutions also can integrate with many of the solutions your firm currently uses. Services like File sharing, like ShareFile, Dropbox for Business, Box, Quickbooks Online, Xero (accounting software), payment gateways, and more can seamlessly integrate and talk with these case management software solutions. These integrations will make working easier for your staff and will remove many of the tedious steps that are currently being manually performed by someone in your office.

If you feel your firm is currently using one of these ‘bloatware’ case management systems, I highly recommend taking a look at Clio and Rocket Matter. These are the two most popular ‘modern’ case management systems that our firm implements for our clients. The easier the interface of your case management solution is, the easier it will be for your staff to begin using it. The more they use it, the more productive they will be. And, whammy! You’ve just increased the profitability of your firm.

Provided as an educational service by Tom Lambotte, President of GlobalMac IT